The seemingly simple operation did not go as well as I had hoped, and I had to undergo another three months later. At first I was worried. I had a lot of horrible thoughts on how I wouldn’t survive, etc. until I realized that I didn’t have to listen to it all at all. I had the choice to reject all such thoughts and focus only on the positive. And so I started planning what I would like to do after the operation was successful. I allowed myself only the thoughts that the operation would be successful and I prayed that God would take care of my life fully. When it was time to go to the hospital, I felt perfect peace and even felt the presence of an angel. I just knew that someone much bigger than me was in full control, so no matter what happens, it will turn out well in the end. Full confidence in God turned out to be the key to my recovery.
Before the operation, I did not receive any sedatives that they usually offer, and I arrived at the operating room fully conscious and completely calm. Even before the anesthesia, I had time to comment on how nice the operating room with large glass windows looks and I talked to the medical staff. I told them that the operation must turn out well, because people from half the world are praying for me.
In the end, the operation turned out very successfully, although not without a fight. My doctor repeated twice in his own words that it was a miracle, that everything turned out well in the end. In the ICU, I still had to deal with several problems and had to undergo two transfusions due to blood loss. I had low blood pressure and had trouble breathing. But I believe that God helped me with all this and I recovered incredibly quickly. Instead of a 10-day stay in the hospital, which they promised me in case of complications, they released me on the eighth day. And I could walk and move without pain.
During my stay in the hospital, I became friends with the lady in my room and also with the lady from the next room. Both were around sixty years old, diagnosed with cancer. They were after surgery, waiting to see how their operations turned out, and of course they were quite nervous. We talked a lot about God and his love and care. I was glad that I could comfort and support them at least a little. I prayed for them and felt they would be fine. After less than a month, one of them called me that her cancer had not spread anywhere else and that she did not have to undergo chemotherapy or any other treatment.
I am very grateful for the hundreds of friends around the world who prayed for me, as well as for the physical and moral help of my extended family and friends. I am also really looking forward to new horizons and how God will lead me in the future, now that I fully trust him again.
– L. Schmidt
